TED英语演讲集： The brain in your gut 肠胃里的大脑 [中英字幕]

This technology made a very important impact on us. It changed the way our history developed. But it's a technology so pervasive, so invisible, that we, for a long time, forgot to take it into account when we talked about human evolution. But we see the results of this technology, still. So let's make a little test. So everyone of you turns to their neighbor please. Turn and face your neighbors. Please, also on the balcony. Smile. Smile. Open the mouths. Smile, friendly. (Laughter) Do you -- Do you see any Canine teeth? (Laughter) Count Dracula teeth in the mouths of your neighbors? Of course not. Because our dental anatomy is actually made, not for tearing down raw meat from bones or chewing fibrous leaves for hours. It is made for a diet which is soft, mushy, which is reduced in fibers, which is very easily chewable and digestible. Sounds like fast food, doesn't it.

有一项技术 给我们带来了重大冲击。 它改变了我们历史发展的道路。 但是这项技术非常普遍， 极不明显， 以至于我们在很长时间里， 都忘了把它算入 我们所说的 人类的演化中。 但是，我们还是看到了这项技术的后果。 那么我们来做个小测验。 现在请大家都转过去面对你身边的人。 转过去面对旁边的。 楼上的朋友也请照做。 微笑，微笑。张嘴。 微笑，友善点。 （观众笑声） 你是否—— 你能看到犬牙吗？ （观众笑声） 数数你旁边的人 有多少吸血鬼尖牙？ 当然没有。 因为我们的牙体解剖学 并不是为了 从骨头上扯下生肉 或花好几个小时咀嚼纤维质的树叶。 它是为了进食那些 柔软的，糊状的东西 不含太多纤维， 非常容易咀嚼 和消化。 听上去像快餐，是不是。

(Laughter)

（观众笑声）

It's for cooked food. We carry in our face the proof that cooking, food transformation, made us what we are. So I would suggest that we change how we classify ourselves. We talk about ourselves as omnivores. I would say, we should call ourselves coctivors -- (Laughter) from coquere, to cook. We are the animals who eat cooked food. No, no, no, no. Better -- to live of cooked food. So cooking is a very important technology. It's technology. I don't know how you feel, but I like to cook for entertainment. And you need some design to be successful. So, cooking is a very important technology, because it allowed us to acquire what brought you all here: the big brain, this wonderful cerebral cortex we have. Because brains are expensive. Those have to pay tuition fees know. (Laughter) But it's also, metabolically speaking, expensive. You now, our brain is two to three percent of the body mass, but actually it uses 25 percent of the total energy we use. It's very expensive. Where does the energy come from. Of course, from food. If we eat raw food, we cannot release really the energy. So this ingenuity of our ancestors, to invent this most marvelous technology. Invisible -- everyone of us does it every day, so to speak. Cooking made it possible that mutations, natural selections, our environment, could develop us.

它是为了进食烹制过的食品。 我们的脸上就带着证据表明 烹饪 也就是食物的转化 造就我们今天的样子。 所以我建议我们应该改变对自己的分类。 我们称自己是杂食动物。 我要说，我们应该称自己为煮食动物—— （观众笑声） 烹饪，源自拉丁文coquere。 我们这种动物 要吃烹饪的食物。 不不不，更好的说法是—— 以烹煮过的食物为生。 所以说烹饪是一项非常重要的技术。 它的确是技术。 我不知道你们怎么看， 但是我喜欢把烹饪当成娱乐。 而且你需要一些构思 才能成功。 那么，烹饪之所以是重要的技术， 是因为它让我们获得了 令我们演化到今天这个地步的东西： 大的脑子， 就是我们神奇的大脑皮层。 因为脑子变大了， 所以我们现在必须要为此付费。 （观众笑声） 但是同时，从新陈代谢角度看，这样的脑也很昂贵。 要知道，我们的大脑占身体总量的2-3%， 但事实上它要消耗我们所需的总能量的25%。 这是很大的消耗。 那能量是从哪来的呢，当然是从食物来的。 如果我们吃生的食物， 就不能充分地释放能量。 因此我们的祖先发挥聪明才智， 发明了这个最不可思议的技术。 说它是无形的——就是说，我们每天都做饭。 烹饪使得 突变， 自然选择，我们的环境， 可以令我们发展演变。

So if we think about this unleashing human potential, which was possible by cooking and food, why do we talk so badly about food? Why is it always do and don'ts and it's good for you, it's not good for you? I think the good news for me would be if we could go back and talk about the unleashing, the continuation of the unleashing of human potential. Now, cooking allowed also that we became a migrant species. We walked out of Africa two times. We populated all the ecologies. If you can cook, nothing can happen to you, because whatever you find, you will try to transform it. It keeps also your brain working. Now the very easy and simple technology which was developed actually runs after this formula. Take something which looks like food, transform it, and it gives you a good, very easy, accessible energy.

所以如果我们想想 这一未释放的人类潜能， 很可能来自烹饪和食物， 那我们为什么还要说食物的坏话呢？ 总是说吃这个，不能吃那个， 这个对你有好处，那个对你没好处？ 我认为对我来说的好消息 就是如果我们回到开头 所说的未释放的， 对释放人类的潜能的延续。 现在，烹饪也让我们 成为迁徙的物种。 我们两次走出非洲。 我们在各种生态环境中繁衍。 如果你能煮食，你就什么也不用怕， 因为无论你找到什么， 你都会试图转化它们。 它也让你开动脑筋想方设法。 目前所发展出来的非常 简单易行的技术 事实上就是遵循这样的公式。 拿来一些看上去像食物的东西，转化它， 它就提供给你好的，容易获取的能量。

This technology affected two organs, the brain and the gut, which it actually affected. The brain could grow, but the gut actually shrunk. Okay, it's not obvious to be honest. (Laughter) But it shrunk to 60 percent of primate gut of my body mass. So because of having cooked food, it's easier to digest. Now having a large brain, as you know, is a big advantage, because you can actually influence your environment. You can influence your own technologies you have invented. You can continue to innovate and invent. Now the big brain did this also with cooking. But how did it actually run this show? How did it actually interfere? What kind of criteria did it use? And this is actually taste reward and energy. You know we have up to five tastes, three of them sustain us. Sweet -- energy. Umami -- this is a meaty taste. You need proteins for muscles, recovery. Salty, because you need salt, otherwise your electric body will not work. And two tastes which protect you -- bitter and sour, which are against poisonous and rotten material. But of course, they are hard-wired but we use them still in a sophisticated way. Think about bittersweet chocolate; or think about the acidity of yogurt -- wonderful -- mixed with strawberry fruits.

这个技术影响到两个器官， 大脑和肠胃，造成了实实在在的影响。 脑子变大了，但是肠胃却缩小了。 好吧，老实说这点在我这里并不太明显。 （观众笑声） 但是它缩小到从前的60% 这是相对于我的体量的 灵长目动物的肠道而言。 因为有了熟食， 就更容易消化。 正如大家所知，有一个较大的脑子， 是一个很大的优势， 因为你能确实地影响你的环境。 你可以影响你自己已经发明的厨艺。 你可以继续发明创造。 现在这个大个的脑子也要在烹饪方面发挥创意。 但具体是如何实现的呢？ 事实上它是如何介入的呢？ 它采用怎样的条件？ 而且确实会带来更好的味道和能量。 你知道我们最多能有五种味觉， 其中三种是我们维持生命需要的。 甜——能量。 鲜——这是肉类的味道。 你需要蛋白质生成肌肉，以及恢复健康。 咸， 因为你需要盐份，否则你身体的电解质无法运作。 而另外两种味道是保护你的—— 苦和酸， 它们代表了 有毒和腐坏的物质。 当然，这些都是与生俱来的， 但是我们还是可以通过精密的方法来利用它们。 想想又苦又甜的巧克力。 或是酸奶的酸味 很奇妙地 混合了草莓。

So we can make mixtures of all this kind of thing because we know that, in cooking, we can transform it to the form. Reward: this is a more complex and especially integrative form of our brain with various different elements -- the external states, our internal states, how do we feel, and so on are put together. And something which maybe you don't like but you are so hungry that you really will be satisfied to eat. So satisfaction was a very important part. And as I say, energy was necessary.

之所以我们可以混合所有这些东西 是因为我们知道 通过烹调，我们可以将它们转化 成形。 奖赏：这是一个更为复杂 和特别一体化 的形式存在于我们的大脑中 其中包含了各种各样的因素—— 外部环境，我们的内部状态， 我们如何感知以及其它所有这些都放在一起。 而且有些东西你可能未必喜欢， 但是你太饿了所以你也可以很满意地吃下去。 所以满足感是一个非常重要的部分。 而且正如我说的，能量也是必须的。

Now how did the gut actually participate in this development? And the gut is a silent voice -- it's going more for feelings. I use the euphemism digestive comfort -- actually -- it's a digestive discomfort, which the gut is concerned with. If you get a stomach ache, if you get a little bit bloated, was not the right food, was not the right cooking manipulation or maybe other things went wrong. So my story is a tale of two brains, because it might surprise you, our gut has a full-fledged brain. All the managers in the room say, "You don't tell me something new, because we know, gut feeling. This is what we are using." (Laughter) And actually you use it and it's actually useful. Because our gut is connected to our emotional limbic system, they do speak with each other and make decisions. But what it means to have a brain there is that, not only the big brain has to talk with the food, the food has to talk with the brain, because we have to learn actually how to talk to the brains.

那么事实上肠胃是如何 参与到这一发展当中呢？ 肠胃能在无声中发言。 它更强调感觉。 我用一种委婉的说法就是消化舒适。 事实上它是消化不适， 而这是肠胃所关心的。 如果你胃痛，如果你有点腹胀， 要不是食物不对，要不就是烹饪的方式不对。 或者是别的地方出了问题。 我要讲的是两个大脑的故事， 因为你可能会很惊讶， 我们的肠胃有一个训练有素的大脑。 在座的所有管理层都会说， “你不用说这是什么新东西，因为我们知道，肚子里有数。 我们一直都是这么用的。” （观众笑声） 而事实上，你的确是在使用它，它真的很有用。 因为我们的肠胃与我们的脑缘系统相连。 它们的确相互沟通 并作出决定。 但是在这里 拥有一个大脑意味着 不仅是那个大个的脑子 要与食物交谈， 食物本身也要和大脑说话， 因为我们必须学习 如何真的和这些大脑交谈。

Now if there's a gut brain, we should also learn to talk with this brain. Now 150 years ago, anatomists described very, very carefully -- here is a model of a wall of a gut. I took the three elements -- stomach, small intestine and colon. And within this structure, you see these two pinkish layers, which are actually the muscle. And between this muscle, they found nervous tissues, a lot of nervous tissues, which penetrate actually the muscle -- penetrate the submucosa, where you have all the elements for the immune system. The gut is actually the largest immune system, defending your body. It penetrates the mucosa. This is the layer which actually touches the food you are swallowing and you digest, which is actually the lumen. Now if you think about the gut, the gut is -- if you could stretch it -- 40 meters long, the length of a tennis court. If we could unroll it, get out all the folds and so on, it would have 400 sq. meters of surface.

如果肠胃里真有一个大脑， 我们也必须学习和这个脑沟通。 距今150年前， 解剖学家做了非常非常仔细的描述—— 这里是一个胃肠壁的模型—— 我取其中的三个成员—— 胃，小肠和结肠。 在这套结构中， 你可以看到这两层粉红色的东西， 这实际上是肌肉。 在这些肌肉之间，他们发现了神经组织， 大量的神经组织， 它们渗透在整层肌肉中， 进入粘膜下层， 那里都是免疫系统。 肠胃事实上是最大的免疫系统， 保护着你的身体。 它渗入到粘膜。 这层真正接触到你吞咽下去 以及要消化的食物， 这就是内腔。 现在如果你想想我们的肠胃， 如果你将其伸展开， 它有40米长， 相当于一个网球场的长度。 如果我们把它摊开， 把所有褶皱都摊平， 表面积将有400平方米。

And now this brain takes care over this, to move it with the muscles and to do defend the surface and, of course, digest our food we cook. So if we give you a specification, this brain, which is autonomous, have 500 million nerve cells, 100 million neurons -- so around the size of a cat brain, so there sleeps a little cat -- thinks for itself, optimizes whatever it digests. It has 20 different neuron types. It's got the same diversity you find actually in a pig brain, where you have 100 billion neurons. It has autonomous organized microcircuits, has these programs which run. It senses the food; it knows exactly what to do. It senses it by chemical means and very importantly by mechanical means, because it has to move the food -- it has to mix all the various elements which we need for digestion. This control of muscle is very, very important, because, you know, there can be reflexes. If you don't like a food, especially if you're a child, you gag. It's this brain which makes this reflex. And then finally, it controls also the secretion of this molecular machinery, which actually digests the food we cook.

现在这个脑子在管理着这一切， 调动肌肉使之运动，保护表面， 当然，还要消化我们所煮的食物。 如果要给你们一个更具体的认识， 那么这个独立自主的大脑， 有5亿个神经细胞， 一亿个神经元—— 这差不多是一只猫的大脑， 所以我们的肚子里正睡着只小猫—— 自己在那里盘算着， 如何最大化地利用所消化的食物。 它有20种不同的神经元。 和你能在猪脑子里发现的神经元种类一样多， 而猪有一千亿个神经元。 它具有自发组成的微电路， 还有各种程序在运转。 它感受到食物，知道应该干什么。 它通过化学方式感受到食物， 更重要的是机械的方式， 因为它必须要移动这些食物， 它必须把我们消化吸收所需的所有不同元素 都搅和在一起。 对肌肉的控制是非常非常重要的， 因为，要知道这里存在着反射作用。 如果你不喜欢某类食物，尤其当你还是小孩时，你会作呕。 正是这个大脑令你作出这个反射动作的。 最后还有， 它还控制着分子结构上的分泌作用， 这才是对我们所煮食物的真正消化。

Now how do the two brains work with each other? I took here a model from robotics -- it's called the Subsumption Architecture. What it means is that we have a layered control system. The lower layer, our gut brain, has its own goals -- digestion defense -- and we have the higher brain with the goal of integration and generating behaviors. Now both look -- and this is the blue arrows -- both look to the same food, which is in the lumen and in the area of your intestine. The big brain integrates signals, which come from the running programs of the lower brain, But subsumption means that the higher brain can interfere with the lower. It can replace, or it can inhibit actually, signals. So if we take two types of signals -- a hunger signal for example. If you have an empty stomach, your stomach produces a hormone called ghrelin. It's a very big signal; it's sent to the brain says, "Go and eat." You have stop signals -- we have up to eight stop signals. At least in my case, they are not listened to. (Laughter)

那么这两个大脑是如何相互合作的呢？ 在这里我使用了一个机器人学的模型。 叫做包容结构。 也就是说我们所拥有的是一个分层的控制系统。 较低层次是我们的肠胃大脑。 它有着自己的目标——消化和防御—— 我们还有一个较高级的大脑， 其目标是整合 和引起行动。 现在这两个大脑都看到——就是这里的蓝色箭头—— 它们都看到同样的食物在内腔里， 以及在小肠部分。 大个的大脑整合所有信号， 这些信号来自较低层大脑 所运转的程序， 但包容意味着， 高层大脑能够干涉低层次的大脑。 它可以替换， 或甚至阻止那些信号。 因此如果我们收到两种信号—— 比如一个是饥饿的信号—— 如果你的胃是空的， 它就会分泌出一种荷尔蒙叫饥饿激素。 这是一个非常强烈的信号。 它向你的大脑说， “去吃！” 你还收到停止的信号。 我们最多能收到8个停止的信号。 至少在我这里， 这些信号都不管用。 （观众笑声）

So what happens if the big brain in the integration overrides the signal? So if you override the hunger signal, you can have a disorder, which is called anorexia. Despite generating a healthy hunger signal, the big brain ignores it and activates different programs in the gut. The more usual case is overeating. It actually takes the signal and changes it, and we continue, even [though] our eight signals would say, "Stop, enough. We have transferred enough energy." Now the interesting thing is that, along this lower layer -- this gut -- the signal becomes stronger and stronger if undigested, but digestible, material could penetrate. This we found from bariatric surgery. That then the signal would be very, very high.

那么会怎样？ 如果大的大脑从整体上 压制了这个信号？ 如果你压制了饥饿的信号， 你就会造成失调，叫做神经性食欲缺乏。 尽管出现了 一个正常的饥饿信号， 但你的大个大脑却无视它， 并在肠胃里激活不同的程序。 更常见的情况 是过度进食。 大脑确实收到了信号 并改变了它， 然后我们就继续吃， 甚至我们的八种信号都在说，“停！够了。 我们已经转化了足够的能量。” 这时有趣的地方就在于， 在肠胃这个较低的层次上， 这个信号会变得越来越强 如果我们吃了一些尚未吸收但是又可以吸收 的食物。 这种情况出现在缩减消化道的减肥手术中。 这种情况下饥饿信号会非常非常强烈。

So now back to the cooking question and back to the design. We have learned to talk to the big brain -- taste and reward, as you know. Now what would be the language we have to talk to the gut brain that its signals are so strong that the big brain cannot ignore it? Then we would generate something all of us would like to have -- a balance between the hunger and the satiation. Now I give you, from our research, a very short claim. This is fat digestion. You have on your left an olive oil droplet, and this olive oil droplet gets attacked by enzymes. This is an in vitro experiment. It's very difficult to work in the intestine. Now everyone would expect that when the degradation of the oil happens, when the constituents are liberated, they disappear, they go away because they [were] absorbed. Actually, what happens is that a very intricate structure appears. And I hope you can see that there are some ring-like structures in the middle image, which is water. This whole system generates a huge surface to allow more enzymes to attack the remaining oil. And finally, on your right side, you see a bubbly, cell-like structure appearing, from which the body will absorb the fat. Now if we could take this language -- and this is a language of structures -- and make it longer-lasting, that it can go through the passage of the intestine, it would generate stronger signals.

现在回到烹饪的问题。 回到设计菜式的问题。 我们已经学习了要和大的大脑交谈—— 你知道，就是味道和奖赏。 那么我们该用什么语言 和肠胃里的大脑交谈？ 它发出的信号强烈到 让大的大脑都不能无视？ 这样我们就能得到 我们大家都想要的东西—— 处于饥饿和满足之间的 平衡。 通过我们的研究，我可以告诉你们一个小结论。 这就是脂肪消化。 在你的左边 是一滴橄榄油， 这种橄榄油会被酶类攻击。 这是在试管中进行的实验。 因为很难在肠道里做实验。 现在每个人都知道 当油滴开始降解时， 当其中的组成成分被释放出来时， 它们会消失，不见掉， 因为它们被吸收了。 但真正出现的是一个非常复杂的结构。 我希望你们可以看到 在中间这张图里有一些环状的结构， 那就是水。 这整个系统会生成巨大的表面积 可以让更多的酶类 去攻击那些剩余的油脂。 而最后，在你的右边， 你会看到出现了一个泡泡状的， 细胞一样的结构， 身体会从中吸收脂肪。 现在如果我们能使这种语言—— 而这是一种结构语言—— 维持更长时间， 让它维持在 整个肠道内， 它就会产生更强烈的信号。

So our research -- and I think the research also at the universities -- are now fixing on these points to say: how can we actually -- and this might sound trivial now to you -- how can we change cooking? How can we cook that we have this language developed? So what we have actually, it's not an omnivore's dilemma. We have a coctivor's opportunity, because we have learned over the last two million years which taste and reward -- quite sophisticated to cook -- to please ourselves, to satisfy ourselves. If we add the matrix, if we add the structure language, which we have to learn, when we learn it, then we can put it back; and around energy, we could generate a balance, which comes out from our really primordial operation: cooking. So, to make cooking really a very important element, I would say even philosophers have to change and have to finally recognize that cooking is what made us.

因此我们的研究—— 而且我想大学里也有类似的研究—— 就是在修正这些地方 也就是说，我们如何能真正的—— 这对你们来说可能觉得有点无意义—— 我们如何能改变烹饪的技术？ 我们该如何做饭 当我们发展出这门语言以后？ 所以我们真正面对的，不是一个杂食动物的两难处境。 而是一个煮食动物的机遇， 因为在过去的2百万年里，我们已经学习了 什么是好吃的和有营养的—— 学习了非常复杂的烹调技术—— 来让自己高兴，满足。 如果我们再加上更精细的内容， 如果我们加上结构性的语言，这是我们必须了解的， 当我们了解了这个语言，我们就可以把它用回去， 在能量之间， 我们就能产生一个平衡， 而这将来自 我们最为原始的行为：煮食。 因此，真的把烹饪当成 一个非常重要的因素来看， 我会说就连哲学家们都必须改变看法 并且最终不得不承认 是烹饪造就了我们。

So I would say, coquo ergo sum: I cook, therefore I am. Thank you very much.

因此我要说：coquo ergo sum（拉丁语） 我煮故我在。 非常感谢大家！

(Applause)

（观众鼓掌）

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